How does Misinformation Affect Large Language Model Behaviors and Preferences?

Miao Peng, Nuo Chen, Jianheng Tang, Jia Li*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference Proceeding/ReportConference Paper published in a bookpeer-review

Abstract

Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown remarkable capabilities in knowledge-intensive tasks, while they remain vulnerable when encountering misinformation. Existing studies have explored the role of LLMs in combating misinformation, but there is still a lack of fine-grained analysis on the specific aspects and extent to which LLMs are influenced by misinformation. To bridge this gap, we present MISBENCH, the current largest and most comprehensive benchmark for evaluating LLMs' behavior and knowledge preference toward misinformation. MISBENCH consists of 10,346,712 pieces of misinformation, which uniquely considers both knowledge-based conflicts and stylistic variations in misinformation. Empirical results reveal that while LLMs demonstrate comparable abilities in discerning misinformation, they still remain susceptible to knowledge conflicts and stylistic variations. Based on these findings, we further propose a novel approach called Reconstruct to Discriminate (RtD) to strengthen LLMs' ability to detect misinformation. Our study provides valuable insights into LLMs' interactions with misinformation, and we believe MISBENCH can serve as an effective benchmark for evaluating LLM-based detectors and enhancing their reliability in real-world applications. Codes and data are available at: https://github.com/GKNL/MisBench.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics
EditorsWanxiang Che, Joyce Nabende, Ekaterina Shutova, Mohammad Taher Pilehvar
PublisherAssociation for Computational Linguistics (ACL)
Pages13711-13748
Number of pages38
Volume1
ISBN (Electronic)9798891762510
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2025
Event63rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, ACL 2025 - Vienna, Austria
Duration: 27 Jul 20251 Aug 2025

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics
Volume1
ISSN (Print)0736-587X

Conference

Conference63rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, ACL 2025
Country/TerritoryAustria
CityVienna
Period27/07/251/08/25

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Association for Computational Linguistics.

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